Still up!
Today’s picture is a collage of pictures of our Christmas tree and a few of our ornaments, all of which still grace our living room.
But Christmas is over, you say.
Bite your tongue!
Don’t you know that Christmas doesn’t even begin until midnight Christmas Eve? Did you skip Advent altogether? Haven’t you heard about the Twelve Days of Christmas?
Well, don’t feel so bad. We didn’t know any of this until the last year or so either. ;-)
According to the Christian tradition, the Twelve Days of Christmas link the Nativity to the Epiphany on January 6th, when the Christmas season ends.
So why do we start putting our trees up and humming carols closer and closer to Halloween? I think we can blame advertisements for this.
Regardless of when we get our tree up (usually the second week of December), we won’t be taking it down until after January 6th.
I can just hear Topol’s Tevya (is there really another? ;-) singing, “Tradition!”
When I was a kid my church (via the Southern Baptist Convention) had the Lottie Moon Christmas offering–in August. It really is too bad we don’t live the spirit of Christmas all year.
BTW, beautiful pics.
Wow, never heard of that one…but I agree, Glenda! The nativity is not meant to be boxed into a few weeks of our year. We should live its miraculous grace all day every day.